Star Wars: Land and Sky: Enchanted
by Lionchilde
Summary: A short piece set in my Land and Sky AU. Padme tells Ani a story to help him sleep. Later, she and Obi-Wan visit a garden.
1. The Birth of the Prince

When I posted _Land and Sky: Episode I--Happy Endings_, my introduction mentioned that there would be a series of interconnected shorter pieces written between episodes. They're similar to the "missing scenes" that I occassionally do for _One Path_. I plan to write sets of them that are related but not interdependent. Meaning that while they are connected to one another and have a continuity and a chronology, they can also be read as stand-alone pieces as long as one is familiar with the basic premise of the AU. This is the first of those, in which Padme tells Anakin another story to help him sleep.

It was written for various writing challenges and fic requests on LJ. I had a request a while back specifically using the prompt "Once Upon a Time". Then my friend Sarah asked for another fairy tale. I'd planned to do more like this, as well as to do some actual _re-writes_ of fairytales using Star Wars characters, so since Sarah needed to be cheered up, I have decided to post this now. There is a third installment where Padme tells the ENTIRE story over for Obi-Wan's family, so you will eventually get to find out where Yoda is. That won't actually get written until I've been able to really introduce Obi's family within the context of Land and Sky Episode II, so I tried hard to make this a complete, emotionally satisfying little piece as it stands. Also, she knows there's no such thing as a jazzberry and so do I, so no one has to tell me. That was one of my most annoying writing prompts and I've been trying to find a way to use it for some time.

**I have not forgotten the other people to whom I owe requests.** Thanks for your patience with it; things have not been cooperative for a while, but I have everyone's requests recorded and I know what I'm doing.

"The Saga of the Red Knight" which is quoted for Inalia's epigraphs in these chapters, is a sort of mix of three fairytales: Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast. I planned for Inalia to write the story herself at some point within the telling of Episode III, but out of all the fairytales we've talked about using in this story, I think the Red Knight thing is my favorite. I really wanted to include it in this story somehow, because in my head the stories that Padme tells here are linked with the stories her daughter tells later, so I sort of cheated and found a way to do so.

"Loch Etive" by Mychael and Jeff Danna is one of my favorite Celtic instrumental pieces. (Land and Sky loves Celtic music; she won't be written to anything else.) In the opening of the song there's an actual recording of the natural sounds Padme and Obi-Wan are hearing in "Shine." I don't really feel like I did an adequate job of describing it, but I thought perhaps some of you would be interested in knowing about the musical aspect.

Oh. One more thing. My original vision for this story was that Qui-Gon died saving the baby and became the equivalent of the fairy-godmother. Given the context in which Padme's telling the story and how soon it was after Qui-Gon's death in the AU, I didn't think that would be appropriate for her story. So, when I get around to those actual re-writes I mentioned, it probably WILL be Qui-Gon as the fairy-godmother rather than the person it turns out to be here.

* * *

**The Birth of the Prince**

_A long time ago, in land far, far away, there were heroes called White Knights and Red Knights. This is the story of how they learned to see the best in one another. The White Knights were wise and powerful, and they lived in a great ivory tower where they kept themselves wholly dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, justice, and peace. The Red Knights, it was said, were not so wise because they had no home and travelled the countryside seeking out those in need. Sometimes, a Red Knight would find a place and a people, marry, have children, and then become the sworn protector of that village or city. They knew less of the things that one learns in quiet contemplation, and they were not always so peaceful, but they understood the ways of the heart. Which way was wiser? Well, that depends on your perspective…_

— Excerpt from The Saga of the Red Knight by Inalia Kenobi, Chronicler of the Ch'lliear

Anakin, predictably, couldn't sleep on their first night in Theed. The unaccustomed luxury of the rooms that Padme had arranged for him in the palace would probably have been enough to keep him awake on an ordinary night. He was alternately fascinated and overwhelmed by the idea of having so much space to himself, and Obi-Wan had to admit feeling much the same way. Then he said that he couldn't sleep on the feather mattress because it was too soft and he felt like his head was going to keep be sucked into the pillows and he would suffocate. Added to the material strangeness of the environment was the excitement and uncertainty of their future here.

There had been a flurry of activity and attention all day. First they had to face all the excited questions, concerned faces, or congratulations from her handmaidens. Then there was arrival of Sio Bibble and a gaggle of aides and advisors to add their questions and concerns to the already bubbling pot; Panaka's insistence upon discussion of security issues relevant to the wedding of Naboo's reigning monarch; and messages being sent to and from Padme's parents. Her family was, to say the least, surprised about his sudden change of heart, and while she said that they wouldn't oppose any marriage that would truly make her happy, Obi-Wan couldn't help but feel anxious about whether or not they would really accept him or Anakin. The boy, of course, picked up on his worries despite the effort he made to keep his thoughts centered in the present.

Padme solved the problem of his physical discomfort by suggesting that he strip the blankets off the bed and sleep on the floor. Then, once she and Obi-Wan had helped him settle himself there—disregarding the pillows entirely—she slipped onto the blanket beside him, tucked her feet under her, and suggested another bedtime story. Anakin lay on his side, head propped on his elbow as he looked intently up at her. There wasn't a hint of sleepiness in his expression or the way he held his body, and as Obi-Wan moved onto the edge of the bed to listen, he wondered if this particular story was going to have the effect they wanted.

Anakin insisted that he wanted one with Jedi in it, and most stories that Obi-Wan knew involving Jedi were either pedantically boring, having been told to him by his instructors at the temple for strictly educational purposes, or did not have particularly cheerful endings. She thought about it for a minute or two, her fingers moving in an absent rhythmic pattern over Anakin's hair, and then began.

"Once upon a time, there were a king and queen who loved each other very much. But they were unhappy because they had no children. Year after year, they hoped for one, but the queen never conceived. What they didn't know was that the royal advisor, who was wicked man and wanted to rule their planet for himself, was secretly slipping a jazzberry powder into the queen's breakfast every morning that kept her from having children. Finally, the queen's mother came to see her daughter and told her that she should make a pilgrimage to an ancient temple where their family had once served as clerics. The journey was long and could only be made on foot. Tradition held that only the woman, her husband, and a single companion could go along.

"So, the royal advisor tried very hard to convince the king that he should be the one to accompany them, but the king, being a wise man, thought that they should have a protector in case the journey proved to be dangerous. He had a good and loyal friend who had fought beside him years before when he was still a prince and invaders had come to their world. This friend was a Jedi Knight who had come to help them, and the king would have no other guardian for his wife. He sent a message to his friend, who came as quickly as his duties allowed, and the three set out—"

"Can the Jedi be Qui-Gon?" Anakin interrupted.

"Qui-Gon?" Padme asked in surprise. "You don't want him to be Obi-Wan?"

Anakin shook his head.

"Oh, thank you," sighed Obi-Wan dryly.

Smiling, Padme reached up with her free hand, fluttering her fingers in a beckoning motion. Obi-Wan shook his head a little in resignation and slipped his hand down to link his fingers with hers. He was mildly surprised at how natural the gesture seemed to him, but a smile touched his lips.

"Don't worry," Padme promised with a wink. "If there's a Qui-Gon in the story, there has to be an Obi-Wan. Right, Ani?"

"Of course," he nodded. "And an Anakin."

"Naturally," Obi-Wan agreed.

"Now," said Padme. "The pilgrimage took many months, and in all that time, the king and queen ate only what Qui-Gon prepared for them—"

"So, they lost quite a bit of weight," remarked Obi-Wan.

"Obi-Wan!" Padme scolded.

"Well, he wasn't a very good cook," he shrugged.

Anakin snorted.

"All right, stop interrupting," Padme shook her head.

"We're sorry," Obi-Wan apologized.

"Fine. Where was I?"

"I think the queen was going to conceive," he said.

"Right. So, not long after the king and queen returned from their pilgrimage, the queen gave birth to a son, who they called Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon was still visiting, and with his Jedi powers, he perceived that some might soon befall the prince. So, he stayed close by his friends, always keeping a watchful eye on the baby.

"He sensed that the royal advisor was not who he appeared to be, but what he didn't know was that the man was also learned in the ways of the Force. He had two apprentices, so one night, he sent one of them to attack Qui-Gon and the other to kill the royal family. Qui-Gon knew that the real danger was directed at his friends, so he led his attacker through the halls to the doors of Prince Obi-Wan's nursery where the other one was about to reach the baby…" she trailed off as Anakin giggled at the idea of Obi-Wan in a crib.

He rubbed his eyes but kept silent, listening to her descriptions of lightsaber combat and trying not to smile, since he was sure that doing so would earn him a dirty look at the very least. Truthfully, they weren't all that bad. He had a hard time with the notion of Qui-Gon so casually leading his opponent exactly where the Sith apprentice was supposed to be preventing him from going, but it was a children's story after all. He was rather surprised when Qui-Gon didn't actually defeat the two Sith but wrapped the infant prince in his cloak and jumped out the window, narrowly escaping his own death in the process.

The two Sith pursued them of course, forcing him to flee the planet with the baby. Anakin started to drift off as the space chase dragged on, so eventually, Qui-Gon tricked them into believing that they had destroyed his ship. Once they had given up, he took the infant prince back to the temple, where, surprisingly, Yoda was not present. Padme made no mention of the Grand Master, saying that the only person to whom Qui-Gon revealed the prince's identity was Master Windu. Together, the two of them decided to change Obi-Wan's name in order to better conceal his survival from the evil advisor. This seemed reasonable to him until the Jedi pinned the baby with the moniker of "Cinder-Wan."

_"Cinder-Wan?"_ he demanded, forcing his voice to a whisper in order to keep from disturbing Anakin, who was blinking and struggling to stay awake by now.

She grinned and shrugged. "Well, it was supposed to be a princess named Elle and the people who raised her called her Cinderella, but you know he likes princes."

"Marvelous," he raised his eyes to the ceiling.

"What are you complaining about? You get to be a prince," she pointed out.

"Oh, yes. I guess you're right. I'm quite lucky, aren't I?" he smirked. "So, are you going to tell me where Yoda is hiding?"

"Well," she said, her smile becoming playfully secretive as she looked from him to Anakin. "It looks like Ani's finally ready to sleep, my prince, so you'll just have to wait until tomorrow."

"But—"

"Be patient," she chided him teasingly. Then she bent to kiss Anakin's forehead. "Good night, Ani."

"Night, Padme," he murmured sleepily.

Obi-Wan sighed. "Good night, Anakin."

"Night, Cinder-Wan."


	2. Shine

**Shine**

_There were whispers of a Black Knight in the land long before he appeared. When he did, he was believed to be the heart of evil. But all was not as it seemed. A woman came who had learned the knowledge of the White Knights and the courage of the Red. She learned them from a Master who had been among both and learned to balance their ways. But he could not teach her the wisdom to know her own heart. How would she learn it? Who can say._

— Excerpt from The Saga of the Red Knight by Inalia Kenobi, Chronicler of the Ch'lliear

After they had gotten Anakin to sleep, Padme took Obi-Wan for a walk in the Royal Gardens. It was a warm night, but comfortably so, and the air was filled with the familiar, musical hum and chirping of the insects and nightbirds. Fish splashed in the ponds along the path, and together with the tinkling of the nearby fountains, the water provided a gentle harmony to compliment the song of the birds and the patient, rhythmic whirrs and clicks. They walked in companionable silence for a while, content to breathe the rich, green, flower scented air, and she smiled as he tentatively reached for her hand.

Feeling a bit nervous herself, she laced her fingers through his and hoped that he wouldn't notice the slight tremor she felt passing through her hands. He didn't seem to, and she drew in a deep breath, then slowly let it out again, letting her mind drift between the sounds and smells around them and the combination of soft skin and rough calluses that she remembered as the feel of hands. It seemed to her that their first, tentative touches like this on Tatooine had happened moments ago and in yet another life. There was both excitement and fear in the fact that he was here now, relief and fresh anxiety.

"What are you feeling?" he asked quietly.

"Can't you tell?" she turned to him in surprise.

"Some," he nodded. "Your feelings are very…"

"Jumbled."

"Yes," he said, tensing slightly.

She turned to touch his cheek, caressing softly with one finger. "I'm glad you're here, Obi-Wan. It's just that everything is happening very fast. There are so many questions, and I don't know the answers."

"I know. But we can find them. We have time," he said.

She nodded in agreement, then told him, "Mostly, I'm just happy. So happy it's scary."

"Quite," he agreed.

"What made you decide to come back?" she asked hesitantly.

"I missed you," he replied, so simply and plaintively that she felt her throat tighten. "I tried not to, but it was no use. You were there whether I wanted you to be or not. I could see you; I could hear you. Sometimes I could even sense you, but we could never touch. And…"

"What?"

"Anakin whines. A lot."

She laughed and ducked her head. "I'm not sure whether to be flattered or offended."

"Be flattered. Just know he thinks the world of you. He told me that if being a Jedi meant hurting you then he didn't want to be one any longer. After a while, I realized he was right," he smiled.

"Thank you," she whispered.

He nodded and glanced toward the fountain they were nearing, which had a wide, octagonal base of rough stone with high sides and a sculpted pillar in the center. A fluted spout on each side of the pillar sent a stream of clear water down into the pool, which then gurgled pleasantly through the drains and added to the musical interplay around them. They wandered over to it, and he half sat on the edge, still keeping his hand in hers while his other arm lightly encircled her waist. Her fingers slipped softly through his hair, their motion light and easy but with a hint of possessiveness that surprised her even as she acknowledged it

"Anakin would like it here," he observed.

"Would he?"

"Plants and flowers fascinate him. Flowing water makes him a bit uneasy, but I think he'd get used to it," he explained.

"We can bring him tomorrow," she suggested.

He nodded. "So. What happens to Cinder-Wan tomorrow?"

She smiled. "You're not being very patient."

"I'm curious."

"Well, there's a prince…or...a princess," she corrected herself. "It's a little confusing to change everything around like this. I'm sort of combining stories to make it more interesting for him. Cinderella's just a romance. The girl lived with a wicked step-mother and ugly stepsisters and was forced to act as a servant. The prince held a ball and she wasn't allowed to go, so a fairy-godmother comes to help her."

"A fairy-godmother," she laughed. "My mother says they're magical beings who live close to nature. Sometimes they help people, but usually they have their own agendas—_don't_ make any comments about politicians."

"I didn't say a word," he looked at her with consummate innocence.

Stifling a laugh, she nodded firmly and replied, "Good."

"So, I assume this…fairy-godmother gives her a dress and helps her get to the ball?" he asked.

"Mmm-hmm. She has to be home before sunrise, so she runs away, but she loses her slipper, and so the prince searches the kingdom for the one girl whose foot will fit inside it," she explained.

"Isn't it a bit unlikely that he'd find the right girl that way?" Obi-Wan tilted his head.

"She had very tiny feet. No other woman in all the kingdom could fit in her shoes," she said.

"Oh, I see," he frowned, looking down at his feet. "I don't think Cinder-Wan losing his boot is going to work."

"It wouldn't have been very interesting for Anakin that way either. I think that the Sith find him at the ball," she said.

"And he defeats them?" asked Obi-Wan.

"Yes, but he loses his lightsaber, and he doesn't have time to get it back because it's too close to sunrise," she said.

"So, the princess finds him and marries him when she learns whose lightsaber it is?" he asked.

"Yes, I think so."

"But he still doesn't know who he is," he frowned.

"That's my problem," she nodded.

"Well, what about the first story? Can't you take more elements out of that?" he suggested.

"I don't think so. In that one, the hidden prince pulls a sword from a stone to become king," she told him.

"If someone tried putting a lightsaber in a stone, they'd have two stones," he laughed. "Or at least, a stone with a hole in it."

"I know," agreed. "I guess I'll just have to find another story."

"You know, you're very good at that," he said.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"So, you like Cinder-Wan?" she asked teasingly.

"I was rather hoping that you'd tell him more about Princess Leia," he shrugged. "But Cinder-Wan is all right. He liked it."

"I told you, there isn't any more," she reminded him, giving his cheek a light tap with her fingertips.

"You could make something up. Look what you just did with Cinder-Wan," he prompted.

"Well, let me see," she frowned. "There was one about a princess who was lost in a storm. She knocked on the door of a castle and was allowed inside. The queen was searching for a bride for her son, so when the girl said that she was a princess, the queen tested her."

"How?" he asked, tilting his head curiously.

"She took a pea and put it under the princess's mattress. Then she piled more and more mattresses on top of it until the bed was so high it almost reached the ceiling," she explained. "Then when the princess went to sleep, she tossed and turned all night and even had bruises in the morning. The idea was that only a real princess could have felt the pea under all that."

"My love, a pea would have been mashed long before the princess laid down for the night," he said with a sigh.

"Fine," she told him with a mock-stern glare. "So we can a pebble then."

"Fine," he agreed with a nod. "That's far more logical. But we still have a problem."

"What's that?"

"Leia can't marry this strange prince. She has to marry Han."

"Has to?"

He nodded.

"You're a romantic," she laughed.

"Well, it's only fair. He went through all that in the other story to rescue her," he raised an eyebrow.

"So, she should marry out of gratitude?"

"No, she should marry out of love for Han, not out of some perceived duty to marry a foreign prince," he said.

"Well, maybe Han rescues her again?" she suggested thoughtfully.

"Perhaps she could rescue him this time," he mused.

"From where?"

"I don't know…wait. The dungeon," he said.

"The prince's dungeon?" she asked.

"Yes."

"What's he doing there?"

"I don't know. Maybe the prince's mother imprisoned him for something."

"Maybe he's a smuggler…"

"A what?"

"Why not?"

"A princess and a smuggler?"

"Some girls don't like nice men," she shrugged.

"Oh, I see. Well, I'm rather glad that you like nice men," he told her.

She laughed. "So, Leia refuses to marry the prince, and they throw her in the dungeon too?"

"Sounds good to me?"

"How do they get out?"

"Maybe she uses her hair clips to unlock their binders?"

She tilted her head in consideration. "All right. And then I assume they have to fight their way of the castle?"

"Mmm-hmm. Narrowly escaping with their lives," he nodded.

"Of course."

"There now. You see? We still have a happy ending."

"But not for Cinder-Wan," she bit her lip.

"Cinder-Wan has his Queen. What more does he need?"

"Something, maybe."

He shook his head, bringing their clasped hands up to his lips, and kissed her finger. "Only this, my love. Only you."


End file.
